Killing Of American Blamed On Russians

Relatives of an American disaster relief expert who disappeared in Chechnya said on Thursday that he was executed on April 14 by Chechen rebels who were told by Russian intelligence agents that he was a spy.

“Let it be known to all nations and humanitarian organizations that Russia was responsible for the death of one of the world’s great humanitarians,” Christopher R. Cuny said grimly at a news conference in Moscow to announce the end of his family’s search for his brother, Frederick C. Cuny.

Christopher Cuny said that he believed that Russia had set up the killing of Cuny, 50, and his three Russian traveling companions in revenge for an article Cuny wrote in The New York Review of Books criticizing the Russian military operation.

A Russian spokesman called Cuny’s charge “nonsense.”